SPOTD: Dockwise Delivers Lucius Spar on Board Mighty Servant 1

Today’s ship photo of the day comes from Netherlands-based heavy lift operator, Dockwise (a new subsidiary of Boskalis). Their semi-submersible heavy lift vessel, the Mighty Servant, successfully offloaded the 23,000 ton Lucius spar last week for the Lucius deepwater oil and natural gas project located in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Lucius truss spar, measuring 184 meters (605 feet) long and 34 meters (110 feet) in diameter, was loaded onto the Mighty Servant 1 by means of skid on operation at Pori, Finland. The spar was transported 7,700 nautical miles and discharged at Ingleside, Texas and delivered back to Technip.

The Lucius Development is located in Keathley Canyon Block 875 in the Gulf of Mexico and is operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.

Dockwise notes that spars are usually offloaded over the stern of a semisubmersible heavy transport vessel, yet in this case, restricted clearance space at Ingleside required an innovative offloading approach whereby the spar was unloaded over the side. This necessitated the design and installation of new buoyancy tanks.

The length of the Lucius spar reached the Mighty Servant 1’s carrying capacity limit extending nearly 40 meters over the stern of the vessel.